


Feather

by djcookiebug



Category: Original Work
Genre: Implied/Referenced Suicide, Original Character(s), Original work - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:01:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6717235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djcookiebug/pseuds/djcookiebug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young man watches his world crumble around him after a fatal accident takes place in his place of work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feather

The wind blew softly through the settling fog as the man stared at the old and rusted metal, the haunting feeling of broken memories staining his heart. This was once his life’s work, now fallen to pieces. This place was once colorful and full of laughter, but now it was just broken and run down. He missed the old times when he could be proud of what was his and not feel shattered inside when he looked at it.

The old roller coasters. Once a beautiful white birch base and bright shining silver tracks became molded. The white turned to a deep green from wear and weather, moss growing where wood met dirt and climbing upwards. The silver now a rainbow of oranges, reds, and browns, rust covering the metal like a warm blanket would, yet it brought no comfort. The coaster itself had been derailed and fallen off the track. It was now lying broken and vandalized, people having spraypainted and written all over it. It was no longer it’s beautiful red but a variety of vulgar languages and phone numbers, topped of with layers of that stinking spray paint. The man could almost still smell the fumes.

His eyes wandered to what was once his haunted attraction. A large demon holding his mouth open, welcoming those who dared to enter the place. There was that spray paint again, decorating the outside of his hand painted monster. What was inside the attraction now was unknown. It could have become a home to some creature or person. Or a portal to hell for all the old man knew. He wasn’t sure, but all he knew was that it broke his heart. 

Walking around a bit, he came to the carousel.  A sad smile formed on the man’s face as he closed his eyes and relived the memory of children laughing and playing on his beautiful horses as the music played and they spun. He could see each horse in his mind, moving slowly up and down as they galloped valiantly around their little circle. This was his favorite ride in his whole park. He just loved the way it seemed to make a child’s day. His eyes slowly opened to now reveal the old and rotten saddles and frayed ropes, chipping paint and rusting bars. These once valiant steeds, now permanently laid to rest. 

To think about this place, to be in this place, was to have a broken heart. It was a graveyard. Not in a literal sense, but the haunting feeling of the never lifting fog and constant silent wind, the rotting toys and forgotten attractions and teddy bears that one could once win in a ring toss. They turned this place, this once happy and bright place for all to come and enjoy, into a broken dream. This place was forgotten and the feeling it gave let anyone know that it knew that it was left behind. This man’s dream had become a nightmare, and it would haunt him for the rest of his days.

Jeremy Oswald once felt that he was on top of the world. He had a beautiful wife, children, a booming business in his amusement park. Anything he could ever want or ask for. His family never went a day without food or shelter, he could give them everything and anything that they wanted, and he never had to tell them no. He loved everything about his life, everything was perfect. It lasted for a very long time, but not long enough.

It was a normal day at Mr.Oswald’s park, children were playing and laughing, having the greatest day of their young lives. Parents were smiling, enjoying their family time and watching their children pay. Mr.Oswald was visiting that day, he liked to see how everything was going, and it always brightened his day to see the children enjoying his life’s work. He was strolling around when he heard someone scream, a terrified scream. It wasn’t the normal top-of-the-roller-coaster, or in-the-haunted-house scream. This scream was real, full of true and raw terror. He felt his heart sink, an overwhelming feeling of fear running through him as more people started to scream. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew it was bad.

Jeremy rushed to the source of the sound, hoping to make his way there before something terrible happened. When he got there, he saw a growing crowd screaming and pointing up on top of one of the roller coasters. A young girl had climbed up on the tracks she was walking along the side, not really seeming to care about the unavoidable danger she had put herself in. Where were her parents? He looked around and could imagine a mother drinking away her pain, too tipsy to even walk straight, let alone watch her daughter, and a father, so distracted with some pretty young thing that he had completely forgotten he had a daughter in the first place. This was a sad, sad, thing, but what was even more depressing, was that it wasn’t the first time Jeremy had seen a child get hurt because their parents were too busy being selfish. 

Mr.Oswald didn’t know what was going through his mind, all he knew was that this was his park, and his responsibility. He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the creaks and cracks of the wooden stairs underneath him, threatening to give way, throwing himself up the steps to the top of the coster. These were only built for when the thing needed maintenance. He never thought someone would climb up them for any other reason, let alone a little girl who was probably afraid of her own shadow. When he finally made it to the top, he started carefully moving along the edge, step by step, heartbeat by heartbeat, breath by shaking breath, towards the girl. He called out to her, keeping his voice as calm as he could, he didn’t want to startle her, as that could end quite tragically. 

“Hey! Little girl! You need to come back here! It’s not safe out there!”

The little girl turned to face him for a moment, but then looked down. Her entire body went rigid and it seemed as she had stopped breathing. Her face turned ghostly, all color drained from those once smiling, rosy cheeks. Jeremy knew that she had just realized just how high she was and fear shook her to her very core. The small girl looked back to Mr.Oswald and gave a slow, shaky nod. Trembling legs carried her in careful, hesitant, steps back towards the man, and she had almost made it, just a few steps away, when everything fell apart. Her shoelace had gotten caught in the track, it seems it was left untied by a neglectful parent, and was now caught on a nail that had come slightly loose. Before Jeremy could do anything, panic set into her features, she started to pull at her leg roughly, flailing as she tried desperately to free herself. She started to scream for help, she started to cry, Jeremy felt his heart breaking as it beat faster and faster. He was scared too, scared for her. He tried to get to her, moving a swiftly as he could without dooming himself, but it did no good. The little girl gave one last, rough tug, and her shoe came off. It was not a happy moment, as anyone would hope for, no, it was the moment that this little girl, no bigger than age six, was doomed. The sneaker came off, but it propelled her backwards, and right off the edge of the coaster. 

Jeremy could only watch as the little girl fell. Time seemed to slow to a stop as he jumped towards her, his chest landing on the wood of his favorite coaster, splinters piercing his shirt and stabbing him in the chest, his hand jutting out only to just graze the thin cotton fabric of the young girl's dress. He missed her. He missed her by an inch, and he couldn’t do anything to stop what happened next. It was all in slow motion as the girl fell towards her end, she was like a feather floating in a cool breeze, her body swaying gently back and forth, her pigtails pressing down against her chest, like anchors, pulling her farther down, but it all came to a final crash. There was no such thing as surviving that fall, as pavement does not serve as a comfortable landing. And with that little girl’s fall, came the fall of Jeremy Oswald’s dream.

There were newspapers, lawsuits, reporters everywhere. They all begged for interviews, begged for answers, but he had none. First came the newspaper reports, “Little Girl Falls To Her Death”, the stories were posted everywhere, on the news, in the newspapers, Jeremy’s face, along with the little girl’s, was plastered everywhere. This was the only reason he knew her name. Little Jane Samuels. Jeremy couldn’t help but wonder how awful her parents must feel, and the guilt pressed harder on his chest. She was such a cute little girl, he could remember everything from that day as if it just happened. He remembered her curly blonde hair, pulled tightly into little pigtails, no doubt to keep them tame. He remembered her bright green eyes, and the way they shined, before she was afraid, that is. He remembered her cute little button nose and the freckles that decorated it along with the rest of her skin. He remembered that pink, cotton dress that his fingers just barely touched, just barely missed, and he remembered that sneaker, left untied, that caused the little girl to fall to her death. The memory made his heart ache and his head hurt, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t rid himself of it.

Next came the lawsuits. The lawsuits piled on one by one. They charged him for negligence, they charged him for manslaughter, they charged him for child neglect, they charged him for endangerment of a minor. He never once had done anything negative in his life, he had a perfectly clean record. He didn’t have any petty theft charges from his rebellious teenage years, no charges for getting aggresive at a bar after he’d had one too many, no charges for sneaking a drink when he was still too young, no charges from experimenting with illegal substances. Nothing. Never once had he ever wanted to see a child upset or in pain, let alone dead. He had spent his entire life building a place that children could go and be happy and enjoy themselves, but it wasn’t worth anything anymore. He had no way to pay the bills and court charges, as people had slowly stopped coming to his park, saying it was cursed, saying it was haunted, saying that  _ he _ was a monster.

Jeremy fell into a deep depression. When all the money was gone, his wife left him, and she took the kids. His family abandoned him. They all blamed him. He should have had a lock on the gate to the stairs. He should have moved faster. He should have yelled louder at the girl. He should have jumped father. He should have this, he should have that. But the worst of the rumors was something that Jeremy couldn’t even fathom. People were saying he pushed her. People were saying that he couldn’t risk having some kid get him in trouble, and so he’d pushed her off the top of the coaster. So many people believed this rumor, including some of his own friends and family, and it slowly destroyed the man, it tore him apart. Through the divorce, losing the park, and child support, Mr.Oswald had no money left. He gave up his house, his belongings, everything he could to try to stay afloat in this world that kept dragging him back down under the water. 

That’s what depression is like. It felt as though someone had put him on a boat and drove him out to the middle of the ocean, and thrown him overboard. The waves of anxiety and overwhelming amounts blaming himself crashing down on his head, forcing him farther and farther down. It felt like someone had tied anchors to his feet and it was impossible to keep his head above the dark waters, but he kept fighting. Jeremy fought for as long as he could, but everyone gets tired sometimes, and that’s the sad truth. Jeremy had finally given up on himself, and let the weight on his shoulders drag him to the bottom of the ocean. He was drowning, but he refused to try to go up for air anymore. He saw no point in it.

Now here he was, walking in the remains of forgotten dreams. He climbed the old moldy stairs to the place where the little girl fell, putting himself into her shoes. He saw her cute little cotton dress swaying in the wind, her pigtails almost floating, curly hair floating above her shoulders, a few small pieces sticking to her face. He watched through her eyes as he made it to the edge, glancing down at the track. He walked along the old rusted metal without any concerns or worries. He made it to the spot where little Jane Samuels fell. His foot hit something and he looked down, and there was a little sneaker, old, torn, sun bleached, molded, and falling apart… But still a sneaker. It didn’t surprise him. The coaster never ran after Jane fell, but it definitely upset him. He squatted down and untangled the shoelace from the track and lifted it. His heart sank as the memories of that day swarmed his mind. This shoe, her crying, screaming for help that he couldn’t give her. He remembered every flail, every tear, and every sound the girl made. It was burned in his memory, a nightmare he would never forget. He stood, looking over the edge and he saw Jane fall all over again. She fell so gracefully, it was almost as if she was an angel, whose wings decided to fly no longer, and whose halo served as an anchor, pulling her down. She fell slow at first, then faster and faster, then hit the ground, bursting into a swarm of feathers. Oh how Jeremy wished that’s how it went. How he wished he didn’t have to see that little girl lying dead on the ground. How he wished he never opened this damned coaster, or this damned park. 

Jeremy was shaking as he took a few steps, weak, wobbling knees struggling to keep him balanced as he inched closer to the edge. Those memories surrounding him, blinding him, deafening him, depriving him of all other senses and feelings besides pain and fear. A lump formed in his throat and he swallowed hard, trying to catch his breath as that sinking feeling, that dark, rushing water of depression filled his lungs. Images flashed in front of his blinded eyes, his wife, her leaving, his kids, them crying. Then came news reports, flashes of his face and the word  _ monster _ , flashes of the little girl’s face and the question,  _ murder? _ Jeremy felt himself choking, drowning, those anchors on his feet pulling him down farther and farther into the swelling amounts of pain. His heart pounding, ears ringing, lungs refusing to breath, and then all at once, it stopped.

Jeremy Oswald had fallen with the last shreds of broken dreams that he held so tightly to, and finally, he let go.

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first short story that I ever completed and I would love some feedback!


End file.
